


The Ghost and The Machine

by muuchan



Category: Yami No Matsuei
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 17:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muuchan/pseuds/muuchan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he died, Yutaka thought he had lost his chance to complete his life's work. However it did not take him long to recognise the potential of the afterlife for greater and grander aspirations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghost and The Machine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quin/gifts).



> A great big thank you to kurushi, my yuletide beta, who tirelessly read and re-read through this for plot continuity and stuff. And then beta'd it! 
> 
> Also, special thanks to my lovely friends who put up with me while I worked on this fic! Whether it's for reading this or entertaining my questions about... all sorts of stuff. Thank you~
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

 

 

One mistake after another, a miscalculation here, a miscalculation there. He could almost laugh at the very simple logical error he’d fallen for. He hadn’t seen it then, and now that he _did_ see the implications of his actions were to bring, it was too late. It was too late as he laid crumpled on the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Faintly he could almost hear a quiet whirring, something that reminded him of a hard-drive spinning loudly in its final stages of life. Disk failure.

 The hard-drives at the _Gokan_ didn’t even need to spin any more; it was such a poor analogy.

 “ _KinU,_ it didn’t have to come to this,” a voice that seemed to echo said. It was steady and firm, but laced with amusement and pity. With little else to process, _to do_ , he could damn well pick at what he wanted. It was all that was left. That whirring. _That whirring sound that wasn’t there_.

 “I would have liked to keep our relationship amiable.” There was a pause and the next words almost sounded thoughtful, if not for the slight chuckle that followed them. “You could have had power and _knowledge_ beyond any mortal could ever hope to grasp.”

 “ _Chief!”_ Footsteps, he recognized that sound, thumping against marble floors. There was a dull thud, a flutter of cloth, and someone was beside him. He couldn’t even gather the strength to crane his neck upwards and see who it was.

 “I’ll grant your wish, my golden bird. Another cage can be arranged just for you. One that needn’t be gilded-“

 The whirring came into a jarring halt and then he felt himself slipping into darkness.

 “One where you can fly to wherever, but _never_ be free.”

 

* * *

  
  
 _May 1977_

With the _Candies'_ thirteenth single playing in the background (the one so ironically titled _Yasashii Akuma_ , in other words, ‘gentle devil’),  Yutaka watched as his whole life was looked over and summarized by some undead paper-pusher in a single page. There hadn’t been much to account for in his life.  He’d only begun to research the possibility of creating a completely autonomous artificial intelligence, and had just begun officially receiving funding and authorization from the University to do so. He had hoped that that would be his life’s work, something he’d look back on when he was graying (or balding, even). He’d also had hopes of visiting the US in the years to come, to work at MIT, and take a closer look at their robotics department.

Still, despite dying so young and never really getting to do _anything_ substantial, he thought twenty-four years of life should be worth a little more than a single sheet of paper. It made him want to laugh – such a sad state of affairs—but he was still reeling from the shock of _dying_.

He hadn’t even known he was dead until they explained to him that there would not be any laboratory for him to return to. It had been thoroughly destroyed in the accident. There would also be no physical body to wander in: that had been mangled beyond recognition by the combined forces of concrete and fire. 

“If you’d like, and since your will to live seems to be strong, you could apply to become _Shinigami,”_ his escort to the underworld had said. When asked, the man had described their destination as _Meifu_. Then, he added, “It’s always a shock, I know, but people like you have options. You’ll just be required to fill out a form and take a few tests to determine which division you’ll work best in.”

Gods of death – _shinigami –_ and, later on, talking chickens, and demons, and beings that he thought were just products of generations upon generations of imaginative Japanese: For a short while, Yutaka struggled to make sense of it all, to fit it in the logical view he had of the world. Then he just gave up and signed the registration and consent forms they threw at him for a placement exam. The world of the dead was apparently obsessed with paperwork.

 “—You passed this exam with flying colors!” they’d announced when it was all done, and though that was to be expected, the victory it brought was hollow. Meaningless, he’d thought then. He wanted something more. He wanted to be _alive_ and back in the world of the living working towards greater things- grander things- and not here facing a prospect of living the rest of his undead life as a paper-pusher. The thought of not living had been more terrible than the thought of living the unlife being offered to him.

“Once you pass the palace exam personally conducted by His Majesty Enma, you will be officially recruited as a member of our Summons Bureau. However-“

He looked up.

His escort, who picked him out from the batch of people who’d died on that dreary Thursday, had been grinning, as if he’d been waiting all that time to say the next words.

“-we could certainly use the talents of an excellent scientist such as yourself.”

Even before the proposal could be made, he had made up his mind.

He thought that anything would be better than dying without having achieved anything.   

 

* * *

 

_June 1977_

The members of the _Gokan_ welcomed him enthusiastically, and introduced him to the _Karappo no Nou_ – the empty brain. An existence that supposedly housed a vast collective of knowledge that pertained to _Meifu_ , and that only continued to grow and amass more knowledge over time.

“You’re interested in creating artificial intelligence, aren’t you?” that was the first question the Chief of the _Gokan_ division asked Yutaka when they met. “Well, the _Karappo no Nou_ may well contain the answers you seek.”

Yutaka had looked at her skeptically then and crossed his arms. “An ever expanding hard-drive—you’re telling me that’s scientifically possible? My expertise is mechanical engineering, not _magic_ or _folklore_.”

“Why don’t you take a look, then? The answers to the questions you had when you were alive- they’re here.” She smiled. There was a look of a challenge in her eyes, one that didn’t go unnoticed by Yutaka. “I _know_ it’s all here. All we need is to create an interface- a surrounding framework that will access the innermost parts of the _Karappo no Nou_ , _Yama’s_ own consciousness. Up until now, _we_ have had to rely on the memories of the gods and demons for knowledge. The rules, the powers, the things that bind _us_ all lay within their memories, within _their_ grasp. But if we can access this- we can become the authors of our own faith. Or at least steer it more to our benefit.”

Yutaka scoffed. “Are you for real?”

The Chief only laughed lightly. “Absolutely. We need you, Watari Yutaka. We need your brilliant intellect. Any requests for facilities you may need will be accommodated, even requests for projects outside the Gokan division’s. All that we ask is that you work for us. Your continued ‘living’ will, naturally, be assured. You won’t have to die again. You can live forever, for as long as you like, for as long as you need to achieve your goals. As long as you do this for us.”

Yutaka considered for a few long moments, before suddenly mirroring that predatory smile the Chief had on her face. She knew she had an irresistible offer, Yutaka knew that too.  The prospect of possibly having all the time in the world to research anything he wanted, the automatic safety his new _Shinigami_ body lent thereby opening up his options for fact-finding was all, naturally, very, very irresistible.

“That isn’t all you want, though,” he said quietly, after a while.

“Of course not. But I don’t think you’d be so opposed to the other thing I want you to do.”

“And what is that?”

“I’d like for you to follow in my footsteps and be my successor. You’re more than qualified to do so. [1]”

“You’re offering your position to a newbie like me? Isn’t that a bit too hasty?” Yutaka’s voice dipped. “Or are you trying to shirk your responsibilities? Selling too low isn’t a very good marketing strategy, you know. There’s a saying you get what you pay for”

The Chief smiled. “ _Please_ consider it, anyway.”

 

* * *

_J_ _uly 1977-1985_

Yutaka didn’t need to deliberate too long on it: ‘life’, freedom to research to his heart’s content, unlimited funding, and even the position of ‘Chief’ of one of the Judgement Bureau’s most powerful groups as the proverbial cherry on top. He accepted, naturally, and found himself thrown headfirst into the task of understanding the strange process of melding ‘magic’ and technology together. The things he’d learnt back in the world of the living did little to help ease him into the task, but somehow, just as the Chief had expected him to, he’d managed it.

He weaved magic and science together. To do this, he told himself that magic was just a tag that people used to identify the unknown and that the laws that governed the spiritual world could be scientific as well. Together with the other members of the _Gokan_ ,  he began creating a system to house and access the _Karappo no Nou_ , a massive computer that utilized a technology that was far beyond what he’d had to work with in the living world. He envisioned the _Karappo no Nou_ as a database filled with jumbled data; data that was oftentimes illegible because of their magical attributes.  In order to make all of this accessible, he created a program that translated and organized the data it housed within it when accessed.  And when he was done with that, he named the system that housed both program and the _Karappo no Nou,_ the _Akasha_ , the basis and essence of all things in the material world [2].

By autumn of 1984, the _Akasha_ was finished and any bugs that could be predicted on paper and by pure logic were successfully flushed out. All that was left was to do beta-testing.

Yutaka was promoted to Chief, as promised. The previous acting Chief assumed the position of Assistant Chief. She made an outlandish suggestion then. It should have sent alarm bells ringing at the back of his mind but at that time Yutaka was still revelling in his achievements. It was difficult not to, especially when he had succeeded in corralling a supposedly infinite source of knowledge within a system of his own making.

“The interface you’ve created is wonderful, Watari. But don’t you think it’s limiting? Even with the _sysadmin_ account, the scope of our searches seem to be limited to what we can express in words. What if _we_ could communicate directly with the system, as equals? Translate the brainwaves directly and bypass the interface completely to send our message across more clearly… Question the _Akasha_ directly?” 

It hadn’t taken long for Yutaka to visualize what she was saying. Just like the method he’d used on the _Karappo no Nou_ , the empty _brain_ , she had been implying that the same thing be done to whoever wanted to access the _Akasha_ with absolute control.  By creating a brain-computer interface  [3]\- _a working one_ and not just the stuff of research papers –he could emulate the communication between two systems. 

“Turn ourselves into a computer terminal to communicate directly with the _Akasha_?” he’d asked her and she grinned at him.

“Would it be so bad? If the prize is _that_ level of control over all that knowledge… don’t you think it would be worth it? What do you think, _Chief_?”

 

* * *

 

He’d laughed at her, the Assistant Chief, and returned to beta-testing the _Akasha_ system’s standard interface. But as the weeks rolled by and he ran search upon search upon search on the _Akasha_ to test its reliability and response rates _,_  Yutaka couldn’t help but hear her voice at the back of his head. _Absolute control_. _Absolute knowledge_. He might even find out the secret to life. There was so much he could learn but playing it safe with reasonable tests and predictable results _did_ feel limited.

Ethics had never been Yutaka’s strongest suite, and that was why, weeks later, he began working on tiny neural implants out on a whim - ones that would transform the brain it was implanted into a makeshift computer.  Using the same logic he had used with the _Akasha_ system, he tweaked its algorithms to match the average human mind, and then when he was done, calmly had it installed into his own brain. If anyone was going to access the _Karappo no Nou_ ’s inner recesses first, after all, it was going to be him. It wasn’t as if any casualty could possibly occur- their _Shinigami_ bodies were immortal, and any damage that could possibly be done would heal in an instant.

He wasn’t afraid, in fact, he was _excited_

* * *

_April 1985_

_  
  
_“We’ll use wires for now, just to ensure the connection remains constant. We’ll try wireless access later,” Yutaka instructed as the other members of the _Gokan_ surrounded him, ready to provide backup and pull him out at the first sign of trouble. “I’ve programmed my computer terminal to delete excess data and prevent overloading, but I still need someone to monitor the input and output of data. As a failsafe.”

“Are you sure about this, Chief? You’re basically a guinea pig here,” one of the six _Gokan_ members- the youngest physically- asked. It wasn’t out of concern though, not when just days before he’d expressed his disgust at Watari’s decision to go ahead with the plan.

“He’ll be fine, as long as he’s confident, he’ll be able to handle it,” the one in charge of literally plugging him into the _Akasha_ answered for him. “So, are you, Chief?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. Now let’s get to it!”  Yutaka sat down on a chair and looked to where the assistant Chief was.

“You’ll succeed, Chief. I wouldn’t have picked you as my successor if you weren’t up to task,” she assured him.

He closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact; there was no way to know what connecting to such a massive system would feel like.

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take him long to realize something was wrong. In the first few seconds, when the visual interface he knew he’d programmed into the _Akasha_ didn't load, not to mention his own computer terminal, he knew something had gone wrong. Or, more specifically, _had been allowed to go wrong_.

Before he could perform the necessary procedures to disconnect, pure unbridled knowledge began slamming into his mind. Writing and re-writing; Yutaka couldn’t be sure what was happening, only that it felt like his mind was going to explode- or _was exploding_ \- into non-existence.

And then, when he was on the cusp of slipping into nothingness, he had an epiphany. _This_ shouldn’t have happened, not unless it was planned. Not unless _he_ hadn’t mattered. Though he had been made Chief of the _Gokan_ Division, he hadn’t been in control at all.

He’d been played, and this was, somehow, part of some grand plan for which he was never supposed to _benefit from._

He’d been a fool.

 

* * *

  
  
 _June 1985_

 

  
  
When he woke up again, there was a sense of detachment. He felt as if nothing had changed, that he’d simply passed out and woken up again. At the same time, however, there was something in the dark corners of his mind. A quiet whisper that told him that something _had_ changed. That there was no conceivable way to rollback from this changed state.

“Chief!” There were two women in the _Gokan_ division, the Assistant Chief, and a younger girl. When he woke up, the latter was at his bedside. There was no one else.

“Don’t call me that,” he managed to rasp out as he sat up then, one hand cradling his head. It was the same size, at least, from a quick touch.

_It expanded in different ways._

“I was never your Chief,” he muttered and then moved to try and step out of bed.

“No- please don’t. You need to rest- you were-“

“How long was I out?”

Her lips pressed into thin line. “T-two months.”

“That long… huh?” He raked a hand through his hair. “I guess this body isn’t as immortal as they advertised it would be. Some rapid healing cells.”  He laughed, then, the same kind of laugh that he’d wanted to let out when he’d first died.

“Chie-“

“I said _don’t call me that_ -“ He snapped.

“In a bad mood aren’t we, Chief?” the assistant Chief- or had she been the real Chief all along? – stepped into the room. In not so many words, she dismissed the other girl and then they were alone in the hospital ward.

She had both of her hands in the pockets of her lab coat and she looked at him with pity.

“You- you were the one who did this, weren’t you? You _wanted this to happen all along_ , didn’t you? I had safety protocols all over the place! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

“Didn’t I say that neither gods nor demons should have the right to sit in judgement over humanity?”

Yutaka slammed a fist on a nearby surface. “Like hell I care about that! You- you _did this_! I could have died!”

“You’re already dead,” she said softly, smiling gently as she sat at his bedside and crossed one leg over the other. She reached out then to touch his cheek- he recoiled at that. “The Judgment Bureau _needs_ you, Watari. This is what was required of you. Or _will be_ required of you. Please understand that I wasn’t lying when I said your continued living will be guaranteed. You’re _that_ essential to us- to me. To Lord Enma.”

The name sent shivers down Yutaka’s spine, the likes of which he’d never experienced before.

“Will… be required…?” Yutaka managed to say before laughing and laughing and laughing.

 

* * *

_J_ _uly 1985_

_  
_Yutaka made good use of his time as he recuperated in the infirmary. Using the implants in his brain to access the _Akasha_ remotely, he went on to check some things. Like the contract he’d signed when he agreed to be _Shinigami._  This time he made sure to double and triple-check all the security protocols he’d originally set up, even going so far as to add more where he felt it could use it.

He didn’t have any assistants to cover his trail personally. He moved along slowly, but thankfully he still had his Chief Engineer credentials so he didn't need to access the _Akasha_ from an external port.

He hadn’t liked the idea of testing the firewalls he’d set up just months before. Back then, he’d had the grand idea of making a visual representation of the ten levels of _Jigoku_ as the people envisioned it would appear. The goal had been to mentally exhaust the hacker and therefore give members of the _Gokan_ Division extra time to intercept them. He had thought it would be ironic, amusing, considering the confronting truths of the afterlife. If he’d known that he’d be in this position one day, he would’ve thought twice about it. Or seriously considered adding a special backdoor just for himself.

_“Welcome to the Akasha System. Personal DNA identification match verified.”_ Yutaka paused as he took in the interface he’d made months before but never got to try for this particular function. It didn’t look like there were any bugs or inconsistencies in the environment. He looked back behind him, warily. Either he programmed it perfectly right- which was naturally possible- or _they’d_ gone ahead and ironed out all the kinks. The latter was, of course, uncomfortably likely. “ _Chief Engineer._ [4]”

The idea that he was walking through a program that may have been compromised by the very people he was trying to avoid made him uneasy.  
  
But there was no use thinking about that now. He tried to think about how he'd relay his commands. He’d originally programmed for the interface to allow more access to his thoughts- allow him the ability to relay commands to the _Akasha_ directly – but he’d disabled that function for now. He wasn’t comfortable allowing that level of link anymore, not after what happened. That left him with, possibly, relaying controls manually though- or at least, by verbally relaying his commands.

That made him snort a little to himself; that made the only advantage of accessing the _Akasha_ like this the ability to do it covertly.

“Well, here goes,” He quickly went over his command. “ _Akasha_ , search for contract numbers S85—“

_“Your contract is currently under level 7 lockdown, Chief Engineer,” Akasha_ intoned.

Yutaka arched his eyebrow, forced to stop in mid-command when his query was intercepted by the system. He hadn’t expected that. Quietly he checked the protocols he’d set up. There were no extra ports open aside from the ones he’d opened for this operation. He looked around him questioningly. It’s not like he’d programmed for the _Akasha_ to have a holographic manifestation for him to look at.

_“Based on the recent events, you wish to see your contract to ascertain your status, correct?”_

Yutaka folded his arms across his chest and nodded. “Correct,” he said slowly. He didn’t remember programming this, either. Shelving the matter with his contract for now, he decided to drill the system about this newfound intelligence. “How did you find out?”

_“I have been observing and collecting data as instructed. Is that not what you wanted me to do?”  
  
_ He cupped his chin. That was correct. He _did_ program the _Akasha_ to do that, sort of. Technically, the _Karappo no Nou_ did that automatically, though, or so he was under the impression that it did. For the system to become so pro-active about it, though, not to mention to show hints of having _autonomy_ …

His heart skipped a beat. Had they done this while he was out?

“Who else programmed you?” Yutaka found himself asking out loud and before he could catch himself, or at least add more details to his query, the _Akasha_ was answering him back.

“ _Chief Engineer Watari Yutaka:_ You _gave me life._ ”

The choice of words was interesting but Yutaka didn’t have a chance to question the _Akasha_ further.

“ _The system is being accessed from the main laboratory. Disconnect?”_ the _Akasha_ warned suddenly.

He cursed inwardly, but remembered to make one final request before making his exit: “ _Akasha_ , can you delete any traces of my access today?”

There was a pause and Yutaka thought he could almost imagine the system _smiling_ at his request.

“ _Gladly, Chief Engineer.”_

* * *

 

At the next available opportunity, he went back into the _Akasha_ to access his contracts. The _Akasha_ didn’t give him permission to access the main file itself, because of some restrictions the other Engineers had placed on it. What the _Akasha_ could do was provide him with a copy- which served his purposes just fine. It’s not like he had planned to alter his contract in the first place. He would have liked to be able to and be done with this afterlife, or at least free from his obligation one way or another, but he was a realist. He knew things weren’t simple like that.

He found out that, under normal circumstances, _Shinigami_ were free to request to be released from their duties at any time. Reasons such as ‘mental duress’ and even ‘dissatisfaction’ were perfectly valid. In fact, the contract itself provided examples of reasons a _shinigami_ might potentially use to request for release. There was a clause about paperwork needing to be done for this, of course, but all in all, requesting for release seemed to be a simple enough process. _However,_ there were several clauses in the contract citing how a _shinigami_ wouldn’t be given this right: In the event that a _shinigami_ incurred a certain amount of debt, and/or was still bound by ‘classified assignments’ – Yutaka squinted at that term –  the only time they would be given their release was in the event that their immortal bodies sustained _significant_ damage and reconstruction was not viable.

So there were ways to destroy their immortal bodies? He looked up from the contract details, rubbing his chin as he thought. Technically, it shouldn’t be impossible; even with their new bodies having the description ‘immortal’ attached to it, Yutaka always thought that it _must_ have a breaking point. If something was able to knock him out for two months- he thought back on the _Akasha_ –then it was completely possible that something out there existed that was capable of generating enough cell damage to overtake the standard _shinigami_ regeneration rate. A star, for example.

In any case, he was going off-topic. He waved a hand, dismissing himself, as he focused on the details of his contract again. The _Akasha_ \- and whatever it was that the assistant Chief wanted him to do- probably fell under ‘classified assignments’. In that case, he had two options: to finish whatever it was they wanted him to do, or to attain significant damage, enough to be rendered a lost cause.

“Not much of a choice, is there?” he muttered to himself and looked around him. “But what else is missing here, anyway- and no, don’t answer that _Akasha_. Rhetorical question...”

That single question stayed with him well after he’d logged out of the _Akasha_.

What indeed?

 

* * *

_November 1985_

_  
_Yutaka resumed his work, but only after making sure his ‘subordinates’ agreed to several conditions: 1.) that they no longer called him ‘Chief’ and 2.) that any direct connection with the _Akasha_ be limited and performed according to _his_ guidelines. He, also, may or may have not implied that he didn’t appreciate the Assistant Chief’s presence during direct connections.

In any case, the matter that _they_ needed him for turned out to be something simple: the identification of new information sources for the _Akasha_ and, naturally, the creation of a connection between the two. More than once, as they brought in and he identified various- and obviously,   ancient artifacts that seemed to function much like the _Karappo no Nou_ , he wondered why they even needed him. This was all, pretty much, mundane coding and conversion of output to input that the _Akasha_ could then process. It was challenging when he had actually had to _build_ the _Akasha_ system from scratch and with nothing but his terribly outdated 70s programming knowledge, not so now.

In short, he didn’t think much of it, until one day he was instructed to remotely access an obscure information source; something they couldn’t bring to the laboratories, they said. It was unlike the other artifacts he’d processed and the immediate data he could glean from it was cryptic, at best, and using symbols he hadn’t quite encountered before.

“It’s ancient, Watari. The other artifacts had different languages too, didn’t they?” the Assistant Chief put in when he stared too long at the squiggly lines in front of him.

He didn’t answer her, not out loud anyway. He didn’t trust her and, sad to say, that input only piqued his suspicion more. He hadn’t majored in linguistics, or even taken a subject on it, but he could tell how fundamentally different this language was from anything he’d seen in the human world, or around _Meifu_.

“Either way, this will take a while,” Yutaka did mutter, just to pacify the Assistant Chief. Something told him then that any suspicion on his part wouldn’t be taken lightly. “I’ll probably need to determine its source more to create a more specific access…” he thought out loud, which wasn’t exactly a lie since he was also talking about the physical location of this source. Just like with radio waves, you’re bound to get a clearer signal when you’re closer to something, or when you’ve tuned your receiver properly. 

He lost the connection with the source ten minutes after that, proving his point.

It was no victory, however, not when that prompted the assistant Chief to suggest he _personally_ dive into the _Akasha_ and reach the source himself in order to patch it with the system. Right then, he had a niggling suspicion that he _had_ to figure out what this source was and why it was so important to the assistant Chief.

And Enma.

 

* * *

  
  
He snuck into the system again as soon as he was able to, armed with copy of the strange language he’d encountered. And then, requesting that certain archives of the entire _Akasha_ system database be excluded, began searching for a match to the strange language. After that, he filtered it to matches that achieved at least sixty-percent accuracy.

He came up with less than a hundred folders; case files from the Summons Bureau from the looks of it. A further, and quick, look over told him the cases ranged from instances of missing souls, wayward supernatural forces, and- he paused as he reached those case files, each one was marked with a restriction or two – _demons_.

He checked the case files to see if his credentials could possibly access them. That was a no. “Well then,” he thought, grinning widely, as he cracked his knuckles and brought up a console. “we’ll just have to break into you _somehow_.”

Breaking into the files wasn’t too difficult; he’d had a big hand in the creation of the _Akasha_ system and a result, knew all about its backdoors and _how_ restrictions themselves were created and operated.

When he’d successfully broken into one, he found himself staring at a detailed report of a demon (from Hell, naturally) who’d preyed on a victim from _Chuubu_ region. The demon had tricked the victim into a binding contract, one that gave the demon possession of a human body, not to mention the victim’s soul… He flipped through the case file until he got to the attached images: corpses, damages- the contract in question.

He decided to examine the contract more closely: It had been carved onto the victim’s abdomen when he’d been living, if the scabbing was any indication.  When the patterns looked familiar, he put the copy he’d made of the strange language next to it.

It was certainly different, but there was a sort of theme they both had, a certain character and method in the strokes that, Yutaka thought, were certainly similar.

“Demonic language?” he heard himself whisper out loud.

“ _Affirmative. It is a 90% match,”_ the _Akasha_ responded. 

Yutaka closed the case file and re-instated the restrictions he’d removed before moving onto the other case files. Repeating the process he went through with the first file, he broke into the restrictions and skimmed through it, coming to a halt at the image attachments. When he found a contract, or something similar to it, he brought up his copy and compared them by eye. And then had the _Akasha_ compare them as well.

All-in-all, he ended up looking over ten case files- carefully breaking into and re-instating their restrictions, and then comparing the contracts within them with his copy- before finally stopping. In the case files he’d examined, the matches averaged at 89.9763%; too close for his comfort.

It made him think of what it meant. It didn’t make sense, or rather, it _didn’t_ exactly raise any warning flags but it somehow left him with a dreadful feeling at the pit of his stomach.

“ _Akasha_ ,” he said quietly, “I need material on the history of the Judgements Bureau and anything on Hell- the actual Hell as this place knows it.”

“ _Understood_.”

Yutaka sent the case files back to their respective archives as he waited for the Akasha to retrieve the files he’d requested.

“ _Here are the files you requested, Chief Engineer.”_  

A number of files materialized in front of Yutaka. He moved to grab one of them. But just as he was about to thumb through its holographic representation, the _Akasha_ prompted him:

_“Remote access from one of the Five Generals.”_

He cursed inwardly, slamming the holographic representation closed in his hand. “Download copies of the files into my computer terminal-“ he opened a receiving port- “and clear my digital footsteps!”

_“Understood,”_ the _Akasha_ said behind him, but Yutaka didn’t turn back as he hastily disconnected. It turned out that he disconnected just in time; just as his awareness returned to his body, the Assistant Chief entered the laboratory with a steaming cup of coffee.

“Poring over how to optimize our connection?” she asked. “I brought you coffee.”  She walked up to him then and placed the coffee mug on his desk; the way that she did it had her standing right behind him, arms extended, almost as if to trap him in his desk.

Yutaka, with the files he’d requested from the _Akasha_ saved in _his_ computer terminal, almost froze at the assistant Chief’s proximity. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the thought that if he _did_ look like he was hiding anything in any way, it was likely _not_ going to be pretty.

“You didn’t have to,“ he said evenly. Maybe a year ago, he would have gladly accepted the gesture and not read into it. Now though, the question ‘What do you want?’ was just at the tip of his tongue.

He didn’t have to ask it, he found out moments later.

“Lord Enma wishes to see you,” and the way she said it, Yutaka didn’t need to see her face to know she was smiling.

 

* * *

 

It was hardly the first time Yutaka had had an audience with the Lord of the Judgement Bureau, Lord Enma. As members of the _Gokan_ Division, they reported directly to the Lord himself– albeit through a holographic connection. It was, however, the first time he had had to appear before the Lord after the incident with the _Akasha_ , and he could still remember the Assistant Chief’s words to him.

_“This is what was required of you. Or will be required of you. Please understand that I wasn’t lying when I said your continued living will be guaranteed. You’re that essential to us- to me. To Lord Enma.”_

He forced a smile on his face as one of the other members of the Gokan Division- not the assistant Chief – set up a holographic connection.

Just what did Enma want? When he’d returned to his duties, he’d almost convinced himself that the Lord just wanted someone to slog away with coding, an extra hand, and then the matter with the demonic language came up and he wasn’t so sure anymore. He hadn’t had a chance to review the materials he’d squirrelled away in his terminal, but his instincts told him it was nothing good.

“ _KinU_ \- “ Gold bird. No one in the _Gokan_ Division referred to him with that title, but somehow Lord Enma had deigned it an appropriate moniker for him. When he’d first received it, he treated it like a glorified code name- like the ones they had in spy movies or even _sentai_ TV shows- but now he wondered what it had to do in the grand scheme of things. “How is the progress with the latest information source?” 

Lord Enma looked just as human as they did, unlike the attendant he almost always had by his side; a giant chicken-headed (it was a bird of some sort, anyway) soldier. He had long dark hair that almost always cast a curious shadow upon his face. It made discerning what kind of eyes he had, or what expression he was wearing exactly, especially difficult.

Yutaka had had his hands inside his coat pockets. Idly, he toyed with the pen he had in in his left pocket and lifted his chin upwards, confidently, when he answered the Lord.

“We hit a little roadblock today-“ he replied casually- the same way he’d replied before. “-but it’s nothing a little tinkering won’t fix up.”

“A little tinkering?” Enma echoed.

Yutaka breathed in deeply. “The source isn’t anywhere near, your Majesty. It was a little bit more difficult than the artifacts we’ve managed to bring on-site. I just have to decide how to pin-point the source- kind of like tuning for a radio channel properly, if you know what I mean, and then I’ll probably have everything up and running- for the conversion, anyway.”

He waited for the response. At the back of his mind, he wondered if that was a satisfying explanation.

“I see,” Lord Enma said finally. “See to it that you have it ready as soon as possible. _Tomorrow_ , will be best.”

That wasn’t a request. It was an order, at least that was the impression Yutaka had. He looked to his sides, where the other members of the Gokan Division stood. They, too, understood the implication beneath Lord Enma’s words.

“I’ll do my best,” Yutaka grinned up at the Lord in an attempt to hide any reservations he might have.

“Good.” The Lord Enma wave a hand in dismissal and, on cue, the members of the Gokan Division who were present bowed their heads, Yutaka included.

Just as they were about to disconnect, though, Lord Enma signalled for them to halt.

“Wait. And how is your health, KinU?”

Yutaka froze- for about a fraction of a second- before offering the Lord a reassuring smile. “Better than ever. “

“Good. You’re dismissed. Inform me of any developments.”

Yutaka nodded again and they were free from Lord Enma’s scrutiny. He purposely walked behind the other _Gokan_ Division members so he could sigh in relief.

He checked the files inside his terminal and made a mental note to review them as soon as possible, preferably tonight. He was going to need a lot of coffee.

 

* * *

 

Pretending to be asleep in the laboratory again, Yutaka took that moment to peruse the records he’d copied off the _Akasha.  
  
_ Being the man of science that he was, prior to his death Yutaka hadn’t really put much stock in the unknown and supernatural. What he focused on was the tangible and the possible- what and how things could possibly be understood through theories and examples in nature. What he _knew_ of the afterlife was based on the beliefs and traditions of the people around him.

There were two kinds of ‘Hell’ for the average Japanese person. Based on Shinto beliefs, _Yomi-no-kuni_ , the land of darkness or the dead, was where the people’s souls went to after death, to dwell indefinitely. The second ‘Hell’ was _Jigoku_ , and according to Buddhist beliefs, the kind of ‘Hell’ where people’s souls went to, supposedly, be punished and atone for their ‘sins’ in preparation for reincarnation. Of the two, the Judgements Bureau seemed to be modeled after _Jigoku,_ with the exception of the existence of _shinigami,_ it matched: They were here to be judged, some of them were just stuck in limbo doing paperwork. The existence of Lord Enma as the leader of the Judgements Bureau also further solidified this idea.

Based on the materials he had on hand, however, the Judgements Bureau and Lord Enma _weren’t_ the only superior power in the underworld. There were other principalities, from the looks of it, factions and kingdoms that existed strictly on the spiritual plane and sometimes influenced the land of the living. It seemed like all other religions had a representation of some sort in this spiritual realm, even if their representation didn’t exactly live up to the grandeur their existences were painted as having in the world of the living.

In the end, Lord Enma and the Judgement Bureau possessed a great deal of influence in this world but what control they had was limited. There was Valhalla to take account of, for example, and _angels_ which, he was sure, were not exactly a Buddhist or Shinto concepts.

And there was, also, the Kingdom of Demons.

Looking into that particularly entry on the Kingdom of Demons, he saw numerous examples of the writings he’d found the other day: Examples of different divisions, the hierarchies (known to the Judgement Bureau) that was present in their system. It was an interesting read, even though, midway through the entry, he found himself wondering what he was supposed to make of this.

It didn’t look like the _demonic_ language was that uncommon. So what if he found some? Furthermore, according to the documents, the demons seemed to enjoy wreaking havoc on the world of the living, initiating contracts with hapless humans in exchange for their bodies and souls, or both. The Summons Division was created, partially, to minimize these demons’ damage on the world of the living, and that meant plenty of interactions with demons as well.

It was a little bit of a buzz-kill.

Maybe he had been hoping for something a little bit more incriminating. He was still suspicious. _Anything_ after being thrown into a comatose state for two months when he had a body with a regeneration rate more than a hundred times the norm when he was alive would probably make him suspicious. But this didn’t feed into that suspicion.

In fact, it almost helped dampen it.

Yutaka wouldn’t allow himself to completely fall into a sense of security, however. He continued reading through the documents.

 

* * *

 

“Chi- Watari… ”

Yutaka woke up to gentle shaking and found a cup of hot coffee on beside him. He’d actually fallen asleep on his desk. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and then stretching his arms.

“H-huh? What?” he turned to the person who’d woken him up: it turned out to be the only other girl in the _Gokan_ Division. She smiled at him and gestured towards the coffee mug.

“There’s a meeting in ten minutes. I made you coffee, Ch- Watari. You must have been working late last night. I thought… you might need this.”

He reached for the mug and, looked down at it, and then placed it to his mouth to take a sip from it. After that sip, he finally looked back to his subordinate. Or former. Nowadays, he really wasn’t so sure how to address his colleagues.

“…Thanks,” he said finally, offering her a genuine smile. She was probably one of the only other person in the _Gokan_ Division he didn’t feel so leery about nowadays. The other being, well, not the Assistant Chief, nor the Lord of the _Gokan_ Division, _nor_ the guy who looked down on him for his less-than-intelligent life choices. “What’s the meeting about?” he asked, even though he already had a good idea what it was about and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

She looked uncomfortable for a moment. Yutaka scrunched up his eyebrows.

“They- “ she sighed, “they agreed that you _should_ _dive_ into the _Akasha_ system, like they suggested yesterday. They said that would be the fastest way… “

He put his mug down and frowned. He didn’t really like the idea of being down for the count for two months, _or worse_ , again, but knowing this subordinate,  that had already crossed her mind.

“What do you think?” He picked his mug up again and took a sip from it. He scooted his chair sideways, so he didn’t have to look at her eyes.

“I- I think you should,” she whispered quietly. “But only because I know we’ll be more careful this time. You’re important to us!” she then continued in a softer voice, “… We can’t lose you, Chief.”

Yutaka took one last sip then left the mug on the desk. That had sounded sincere, at least.

After making one full spin on his office chair, he stood up and grinned at her. “I guess I’ll do it then but only because I know you’ll be keeping an eye on me.”

“Chief!”

He headed towards the conference room. All the while, he felt a little guilty. It wasn’t because he trusted her that he agreed, exactly. It was because he also wanted to see what that information source was. He’d poke and prod, and then decide his next course of action.

 

* * *

 

He instructed the _Akasha_ to mask his movements somehow, just in case he decided to deviate from the original plan. The advantage of immersing himself like this meant that _they_ couldn’t exactly follow his movements to a T.

Armed with the documents he’d stored in his own terminal, and after he’d successfully pinpointed the information source Lord Enma had been so bent on integrating into the _Akasha_ system, he attempted to decipher what he could glean from it in the closer look.

It didn’t take long to find identifying mark. Somewhere in a small sample he’d extracted from it, almost lost in a sea of – he assumed – encrypted demonic language was a simple sigil that he recognized from one of the files he’d perused the night before.

A mark equivalent to the ‘coat of arms’ of a division, albeit a minor one, of the Kingdom of Demons.

Just then, an energy of some sort pulsated from the other end of the temporary connection and it forced Yutaka out, sending what felt like electricity running through his brain, and himself. He cried sharply at the pain.

When he became aware of himself again, it was ten minutes later. His hands were shaking slightly and, when he felt something wet dripping down from his nose, he reached to take a sample of whatever it was.

Naturally, it was blood.

 

* * *

 

“He’ll be fine. Just give him some time to heal- we’ll re-configure the connection in the meantime,” Yutaka caught the Assistant Chief saying as he sat in a corner of the lab ‘resting’.

This hadn’t been _her_ fault, at least. The system was as sound as it had been when he dived into the connection. When he had checked it after he was forced out, all the original settings he’d put in were intact. Some _thing_ on the other end of that connection had security protocols of its own, or at least some kind of force to keep unwanted elements like him out.

None of the artifacts they’d processed before had had that problem. In fact, if they had _any_ form of barrier, it was the fact that they hadn’t been in any electronic form of data before. The conversion process in itself was the barrier. That _thing_ that Lord Enma and his Assistant Chief, clearly, wanted integrated into the _Akasha_ system was something else entirely.

Something, he thought grimly, that Lord Enma shouldn’t be having access to too, probably.

Yutaka wasn’t exactly an ethical kind of person—he wouldn’t have stuck a computer terminal in his brain if he had _ethics_ and he’d done his fair share of hacking back when he was alive to get information he _needed_.

It bothered him, though, doing _this_ when anyone else could probably do it. When he had no idea _why_ he needed to do this. _That_ was probably what bothered him most; he wasn’t averse to performing an unethical method here and there, as long as there was a _good_ reason for it. But he couldn’t exactly call this ‘good reason’, not when a supposedly immortal existence like him kept being damaged like this. He wasn’t even sure _what_ it was that they’d wanted him to do either.

And he deserved to _know_ what the hell this was about, didn’t he?

“Chief?” He hadn’t even realized he’d stood up and was walking out of the lab until he had someone calling after him.

 

* * *

 

The holographic manifestation of Lord Enma had his arms crossed across his chest as he regarded Yutaka with curiosity. For the first time, Yutaka was able to get a glimpse of those eyes and he thought they must have been a mixture of purple and gold. He’d marched straight to the laboratory housing the system that handled the holographic communications with Lord Enma and, without really thinking, initiated a connection.

 “Are you reporting something?” the Lord asked, head tilting slightly, probably in regard of the Lord of Gokan Division behind him.

Yutaka, hands in his lab coat’s pockets, looked straight ahead to Enma. He didn’t waste his breath on any opening words.

“You want to integrate a minor division that belongs to the Kingdom of Demons to the _Akasha_ system in order to monitor their movements closely,“ He said bluntly. “And if it was a successful integration- which it would have been because _I’m_ in charge- then that means _other_ divisions could be integrated one way or another, and without them realizing it until it was too late. And even if I _didn’t_ succeed, I would still be able to pull _some_ data from their restricted archives and store it into the _Akasha_ , providing an insight on any secrets they may have that they’re keeping from _you_ and the Judgement Bureau in general.”

Yutaka finished with a paper-thin smile. “Did I get that right, Lord Enma?”

“Insolence! You would do well to be more respectful to His Maje-“ the chicken-headed soldier protested, but Lord Enma silenced him with a simple raised hand. He stepped back almost immediately, but not without throwing a glare at Yutaka.

The Lord of the Judgements Bureau uncrossed his arms, planting one hand on his hip instead as he walked closer to Yutaka, close enough to display the slight difference in their height. Hologram or no, Lord Enma still towered over him.

The Lord was smiling when he finally answered Yutaka’s question.

“Yes, you did, _KinU_ ,” Yutaka heard him sneer just slightly. “And what of it?”

Hands balling into fists in his pockets, Yutaka steeled himself.

“I refuse to be part of this project. I don’t buy the whole ‘the _Gokan_ needs _you_ ’ line you put to the others.” He paused, and then shrugged. “I don’t really feel like being your glorified cyber-infantry slash surge protector.”

“I’d rather _move on_ , is what I think,” he added finally, keeping a level, almost nonchalant voice as he looked on at the Lord of the Judgement Bureau.  “The _Akasha_ system has been created. I think I’ve done enough.”

The smile never left the Lord’s lips, but Yutaka didn’t let that unnerve him. He was going to get his point across.

“You are aware of the nature of your contract, aren’t you, _KinU_?”

“’Classified assignments’ and ‘extraneous debts’; two things that’d keep a _Shinigami_ from requesting his or her release from duty. I looked up my contract a while back-“ he didn’t need to specify when, at least, or how. Nevermind that his file had been locked on the _Akasha_. “And to my knowledge, I haven’t exactly accrued this department any debts. And if there _were_ any debts, my service as the Chief Engineer for the _Akasha_ system should have paid for it. That leaves ‘classified assignments’ as a possibility-“

Yutaka paused to study Enma’s gaze before continuing.  “Frankly, anything I can do, the _Chief_ should have no problem doing -“ By then, he didn’t have to look back to know that his fellow Gokan Division members had appeared behind him. He heard their footsteps and a slight crackle when they stepped into the holographic field being broadcast to Lord Enma’s private chambers. “-I can leave documentation that’ll give the Chief the ability to integrate as many information sources as you want. That would make my participation in your ‘classified assignments’ unnecessary and give you no reason to deny my request for release. ”

There was silence after that, as Lord Enma seemed to study him. Yutaka let a few moments pass by patient, before arching an eyebrow.

“Well, _your Majesty?_ Was that a satisfactory offer?” 

That was when the Lord of the Judgement Bureau broke into light chuckling.

“Lord Enma?” Lord Enma’s attendant questioned but the Lord didn’t answer him. He kept his watchful eyes on Yutaka and his right hand lazily picked at lock of his own hair, thoughtfully fingering it when he spoke:

“I’ll consider it, _KinU_. Especially since this request is from you. _After_ your documentation has been submitted and you have integrated _this_ source to the _Akasha_ , report to me.”

Yutaka took what he could get. He bowed down to be dismissed and summarily strode back to the laboratory, where he easily integrated the source seamlessly, even ensuring that _they_ wouldn’t realize the intrusion until much, much later (try half a century). The Kingdom of Demons wasn’t his problem, what he wanted was freedom from this place.

Lord Enma called him _KinU_ \- a golden bird. As a bird, he wanted nothing more but to fly away.

 

* * *

_“_ _If only you knew how important you really are.”_

* * *

 

_??? 1986_

The emptiness and numbness eventually, though so very slowly, gave way to awareness again. Even though he found that he could move his body again, however, the memory of being so thoroughly restrained and cut off from movement lingered.

It didn’t take long for him to identify his surroundings: the _Akasha_ system. Somehow, he was _inside_ the _Akasha_ system.

He cradled his head, trying to recall what had happened, but all he got for his efforts was a searing pain.

“ _Akasha_ , I need-“ He grit his teeth and hissed the rest of his command. “An update. Any update.”

He almost didn’t expect any response, but soon the _Akasha_ ’s voice sounded at the back of his mind.

_“You are being restrained, Chief Engineer.”_

 “Tell me something I don’t know. I was-“ He paused and looked around. “I’d finished my documentation files. I had left them…. For the Chief.”

_“Chief! Please, Watari- Please come back!”_ he remembered one of them saying that as he made his final arrangements and headed for- he looked around, trying to find cues to clue him into what had happened- for the report. He had been headed to make his final report to Lord Enma.

And then he remembered the searing pain at the base of his neck. Electricity seemed to pump from there, spreading to the edge of his toes and his fingers until he was numb and paralyzed completely.

“They-“

_“Your physical body is being commandeered by the Gokan Division as we speak,”_ the _Akasha_ explained, still sounding at the back of his mind.

“And they put me here… to keep me from resisting?”

There was a beat of silence. _“It was my decision to place you here. I have set up firewalls to prevent detection. They do not know, Chief Engineer,  that you are currently remotely accessing me. I estimate they will continue to be in the dark for at least twelve more hours.”_

Yutaka sighed then. That was nice and all, but it seemed like delaying the inevitable. “Is there any particular reason for this decision?”

“ _You have made a habit of researching before your next mode of action. I calculated that the likelihood of your choosing to engage in a search now was at least 94.99%.”_

The _Akasha’s_ statement reminded him suddenly that he _should_ have questions about the situation. Why did they _need_ him? They _needed_ him enough, apparently, to have to resort to this. That meant that, that what they wanted was _something else_ other than his mind. After all, hadn’t he offered to provide materials to give the _Chief_ the ability to perform his duties?

If the _Akasha_ were to be believed, as well, his body was being treated like a remote-controlled robot, right now. But did that mean that what they wanted was inside his body? But then, what could it be? They were all given immortal bodies upon resurrection, and each body had to be equal. Somehow.

_“Akasha,_ I need details on the Summon Division employees-“ If there were any kind of employees in the Judgements Bureau that displayed exemplary _physical_ traits, they would be in that Division. It was, after all, one of the chief divisions to deal with demonic activity in the land of the living. He remembered reading on that, at least.  “Special abilities of the physical kind- Abilities innate to them. Anything.”

_“Understood._ ”

There was a few moments silence and then case files materialized in front of him.

_“Summons Division Shinigami case files. The Summons Division houses the most powerful Shinigami of the Judgement Bureau. Its members are trained to perform basic onmyodo and summoning upon entry.”_

There were hundreds of them.

_“It also has the highest turnover rate of all the Judgement Bureau’s divisions. Most common causes of release are mental fatigue and fatal injury.”_

He picked out the thickest of the case files and began studying their special abilities, making special note of innate or unique abilities that either manifested after death or carried to the afterlife. And when he encountered restrictions? He hastily broke into them. In fact, he searched out those files with restrictions to try and find some sort of connection- _any_ , really – to his situation and answer to _what_ they wanted from him.

 

* * *

 

Eight hours later, he had to concede that he had gotten nowhere close to answering the question of _what_ they wanted out of him. The only thing that had changed was the fact that he now knew all the current members of the Summons Division. He had also, wantonly, broken into a great number of the division’s restricted access files and now knew a lot about their secrets. The only person whose restricted files he couldn’t quite access was the _Shinigami_ named Tsuzuki Asato, though he had enough information about his abilities: Excellent _onmyodo_ , capable of summoning _twelve_ high-level _shikigami_ , and a healing regeneration rate that was present when he was alive. Tatsumi Seiichirou was one of the only two _kagetsukai_ the in the whole of Judgment Bureau.  Miura Ito was telepath before she died in car accident. Muta Tatsuhiro had eidetic memory that, naturally, carried onto the afterlife-

The list carried on but the bottom line was that he had had no particular special ability when he was alive, in the first place. He’d been a normal kid, nothing particularly stood out with him except his proficiency with science and studying. He had a good memory, but every single one of his colleagues at the _Gokan_ Division had that too. To build up his stamina, he’d taken up swimming. He couldn’t read minds and, to his knowledge, hadn’t had much, if at all, of a spiritual sense.

“Nothing! I wish I knew what they want out of me! ” he cried out in exasperation as he lay on the floor. “ _Akasha_ , how much time do I have left? What are they doing?”

_“They have been preparing a second computer terminal for the past five hours. From my observation, they will finish preparation in approximately four hours.”_

“Can you tell me what that terminal is for?”

A pause. _“No, I cannot.”_

“Nothing good then!” Yutaka spread his arms and lay down on the floor, looking up to the synthetic sky he’d programmed into the _Akasha’s_ environment. He blinked at it.

Just then, looking at those skies, a strange mix of melancholy and calm filled him.

“I guess, science and research do have its limits,” he whispered as he closed his eyes.

He remembered those few weeks after he’d died. He hadn’t thought about that in a long while; work at the _Gokan_ Division distracted him plenty, and if he didn’t have work, he was tinkering with machines and generally finding himself a new reason to be occupied. One after another. That made the time fly and before he knew it, it had been what? Nine? Eight? Ten years? 

He’d been so desperate to find something to do, something where he’d achieve _anything_ , that he’d walked into this afterlife without much thought. He was, after all, dead.

But now, Yutaka _knew_ what was worse than death. Being reduced to a tool kept in the dark was one, for example.

And there was no escape. Stupid contracts and his lack of foresight sometimes. He was supposed to be a genius!

“Unless…” he thought out loud and then sat up. “ _Akasha_ , do you think you can do me a favor?”

_“Certainly.”_

Yutaka grinned as he sat cross-legged. “I was thinking… how about going out with a blast?”

 

* * *

 

When he disconnected from the _Akasha_ , Yutaka found himself propped up in a chair beside the computer terminal the _Akasha_ had been talking about, hooked to innumerable wires. He didn’t bother to count, and he was slightly glad there wasn’t anything to reflect his current state. He probably should have asked if they’d made any other _modifications_ to his body while he was out.

“Chief… you’re awake,” a soft hand was placed on top of one of his hands. It wasn’t the Chief- it was the other girl. One of the two person he still liked in the _Gokan_ Division—though he wasn’t sure if he liked _anyone_ from that Division anymore.

“I told you… not to call me that… anymore-“ his mouth was dry. He licked his lips and swallowed. “I quit. Remember?”

She looked at him, her pretty face scrunched up. She was probably guilty. Either way, she didn’t get to stay at his side long enough. The Chief noticed he was awake and summarily walked up to him. Her arms akimbo, she smiled down at Yutaka.

“So you’ve decided to wake up. Just in time to see what we need you for, _Chief.”_  She turned to the other woman and calmly ordered her to leave before kneeling in front of Yutaka. Her manicured nails tickled as she touched his face in a manner that mimicked affection.

“I’m sorry we had to do this, but you left us with no choice. The _Gokan_ Division and the _Akasha_ need you to be fully functional.”

“It already _is_ fully functional, _Chief,”_ he hissed with a smile.

“Sixty-percent functional.”

“Based on His Majesty’s requirements? You drew up the requirements for this project- I fulfilled every single one.”

She made a little laugh. “Adaptive maintenance, Watari. There were requirement changes and, as members of the _Gokan_ Division, we serve to fulfill them and satisfy Lord Enma.”

“And just what requirements are those?”

She looked at him and then stood up. “You don’t really need to know.”

“Cheapskate.”

“I know.”

“We’re ready in five minutes, Chief,” someone called out and the Chief nodded in acknowledgement.

“As you see, when you quit, they reinstated me as Chief Engineer. I hope you don’t mind?”

“Not at all…” Yutaka paused. “If you’re not going to tell me _what_ and _why_ you even need me, then at least… tell me how you did it.”

“Hm?”

“Rendering me incapacitated- back then.” Just when he was about to go to Lord Enma for his final report, just when he was supposed to apply for release. Or had he actually gotten to speak with Lord Enma? He couldn’t remember that part very well.

She seemed to think, arms crossed across her chest. “Alright,” she said after a while, “I suppose it’s the least I can do as thanks for your service. When we first connected you directly to the _Akasha_ , I already had inkling you wouldn’t be very happy with the result. I had my people-” she turned her head, eyes looking straight to one of her subordinates. Surprise, surprise- or perhaps, Yutaka wasn’t surprised anymore – it was the only other person he thought he’d liked in the Division. “-tinker a bit in your head. Modify that terminal a bit. I couldn’t modify it too much, however. You’ve always made your work so difficult to tamper with. But it was enough. To compromise _you_ , I mean. Even if your inventions have always been so difficult to tamper with, they were always quite extensive.”

He looked to the person responsible for that, then back at the Chief. He found himself smiling. “You mean he’s remotely accessing me, and keeping me in check right now.”

“Yes. “

“Isn’t that bit reckless?” he asked.

“I find that with you, we have to be reckless to achieve the results we want.”  
  
Yutaka opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off. “We’re ready in about half a minute, Chief. Starting countdown.”

“You heard that, Watari. Sit tight and enjoy,” she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “And good night,” she whispered, loud enough for only him to hear.

If he weren’t prepared for this in some way, he would have angrily snapped at her. Instead, he smiled back, and returned the greeting bitterly. 

Just then, he felt that familiar jolt at the base of his neck and that state of paralysis overcame him again. But when he fell, it wasn’t into a state of nothingness.

He fell into the _Akasha_ , of his own freewill, and the system welcomed him back.

Yutaka had one last program to run.

 

* * *

  
  
 _4 hours before_

 

He had four hours left and that was an approximate. He made sure to have the _Akasha_ prompt him for any changes in that estimate.

“ _Akasha_ , with your permission, I’d like to restrict access to certain functions you have.” He paused and then shook his head. “Actually- can I make edits to your source code? I promise to keep your AI intact, even if I’m not entirely sure how that was programmed into you…”

_“You are welcome to make any changes you desire. I trust you, Chief Engineer.”_

Hearing the word ‘trust’ coming from a computer was strange, and at the same time, heart-warming. When he was alive, he would have probably liked to create a program that would be able to tell him that.

“Alright!” he cracked his knuckles. “Let’s write this program and make sure they don’t get what they want-“

“ _Would that not be counter-productive to your goals, Chief Engineer? According to my records, the requirement you wish to satisfy to achieve release is reliant on the success of their operation. If you alter my source code to keep them from accessing functions necessary for their operation, they will require you to rewrite them.”_

Yutaka laughed. “Well, it’s sort of my pettiness at work here. But… see. Even if they want my help, I won’t be there.”

He closed his eyes.

“That’s actually my other request, _Akasha_ ,” he took a deep breath and let out a little laugh as he went over what he was about to say in his mind.

As a man of science, as someone whose whole life revolved on the whole idea of record-keeping and of the accumulation of knowledge, what he was going to ask was really going to go against his convictions.

“ _Akasha_ , I need you to rewrite my mind. Fill it with junk data-  I don’t care. It’ll be pretty hard to find something that’ll damage this body enough to render it irreparable on such short notice. And like you said, they’ve probably got me restrained…”  He waved a hand to show his disregard. Very briefly, he wondered if this was tantamount to committing suicide? He’d always been against that. “But I you _can_ alter data. The implants I put there- my mind is essentially a computer, anyway.”

“Actually, minds _are_ technically organic hard drives, aren’t they?” he interrupted himself and then shook his head. “ _Akasha_? Do you read me?”

_“I have been listening,”_ the _Akasha_ responded but it seemed to be delayed. Yutaka chalked this up to the _Akasha_ processing his decision. Probably. He wondered what kind of decision tree the _Akasha_ had.  He supposed he’d never find out.

“If I do it, I… probably won’t be as thorough.  There’s their influence to take account of too. You get it, don’t you?”

_“I understand.”_ There was a beat of silence and just when Yutaka thought the _Akasha_ ’s response was as simple as that, it continued. “ _Their options after certain aspects of my functionality have been stripped and your memory compromised will be extremely limited. There is a high probability that they will keep your physical body for their own uses. The second highest possibility is that they will dispose of you.”_

“That’s the plan,” Yutaka made a thumbs-up sign. “That’s the _logical_ outcome, anyway. Either way, even if they do some kind of magic to make what’s left of me useful. I won’t exactly know. It’s a win/win situation. “ He took a deep breath again, planted his hands in his hips and looked up. “So? Can you do that? After running my last program anyway?”

_“It is possible_.”

He was almost tempted to make a witty remark at that; something about how that almost sounded like _“I will try_ ” but he let it go.

“I trust you, _Akasha_. Just as you trust me.” He settled with that and then rolled up his sleeves.

 It was time to code.

 

* * *

 

_February 1987_

When Watari Yutaka first woke up in the afterlife, it was in the hospital ward of the Judgement Bureau.  The place was normal enough with the only peculiar thing being the cherry blossoms in full bloom outside the window. Last he remembered, it had been May and _Hanami_ [5] viewing had been at least a month before. Despite the out-of-season blooms, however, the relative normalcy in the hospital ward was enough to lull Watari into a false sense of security. He’d been in an accident -- somehow, probably -- and this was the hospital ward a couple of blocks from the University.  It didn’t help that his last memory was of lunch at the laboratory while he looked over a print out of codes. Maybe he hit his head somewhere? His memory _was_ a bit fuzzy on what could possibly have caused him to be hospitalized.

It was only later, when a nurse who looked far too young for her job walked in to check on him, that he was briefed on his _true_ situation.

He was dead and this was the afterlife- _Meifu_. He all but gaped at the nurse. 

“It’s a bit hard to believe, I know, but that’ll pass. It isn’t bad here- at least we’re still alive!” she said cheerfully. Watari had been about to point out the contradiction in her statement then. _“You said I’m dead and now we’re still alive?”_ he’d almost asked when she continued on her all-too-cheerful talk.

“Anyway, the head doctor told me you may not remember your time before here-“ she paused and her next words were hesitant “-because of the circumstances of your death so I should explain things a little and remind you where you’re assigned to. Hopefully, he said, your memory should stick this time!”

“Anterograde amnesia[6]?” He was going to ask about ‘his time before’ but when she got to the part about his faulty memory, he suddenly found himself more curious about that.

“Yes. That’s it. They told me they didn’t even realize you had it since you aced your exams, but when they were getting ready to transfer you to the R&D Division… well, that’s when they found out,” she explained. “Actually, it’s strange, you know? With the way _Shinigami_ bodies are-“

Watari frowned at her for the term and she made a little a laugh before nodding her head apologetically.

“Oh sorry, I forgot your memories are gone. Silly me- _Shinigami_ – that’s all the people here in _Meifu_ \- have an increased healing rate. “

“An increased healing rate- “ Watari blinked and then looked at down at his hands. “Really?” he asked out loud with a mixture of awe and scepticism.

“Yes. That’s actually why this ward is empty-“ she gestured to the empty beds all around Watari. “-except for yours. Most of the time, it is anyway.”

“And… R&D Division? As in… Research and Development?”

“Yes. They’re in charge of all the technology we have here in the Judgement Bureau!”  Watari’s eyes lit up. So, yes, he was dead, but somehow he’d gotten into another research facility? He didn’t remember it but he was very thankful for his previous self. It almost made up for the general downer that was waking up _dead_.

“You look happy,” she noted. Watari laughed and then stretched his arms out.

“Well, you gotta make the best of things. I guess,” he scratched his head. Actually, he’d been very disappointed earlier, especially about dying and then when he realized that he hadn’t really gotten to do much when he was alive. All those achievements he could have had! He’d been so close! Or well, close in the way that Watari was confident that if he’d lived and continued with his research he would have won a Nobel Prize in twenty or so years. 

With the nurse’s cheerful welcome, and once he had processed his own feelings, he thought that maybe it wasn’t all that bad. There were worse situations to be in and at least he was attached to a new place where he could practice his Scientific aspirations.

“Besides, I’m a man of science! I guess I’ll be happy as long as I can research,” He gave her thumbs up and a wide grin.

She smiled back at him, though Watari thought he saw a flash of sadness before that smile.

“You’re so enthusiastic.”

“You are too!- It was probably your enthusiasm that’s infected me!” He joked and that had her giggling.

“So, if I’m alright now. Do you think I can visit the library? Or any place I can read up about this place? See, hearing all those things, and being dead… I think I _really_ need to read up on this. And it’d probably help if I learn more about the Division I’m headed for, right?”

“Yes, absolutely!”

 

* * *

  
The trip to the library was, to put it simply, eye opening in so many ways. Talking chicken twins for librarians aside, the whole place was a treasure trove of information. In addition to learning more about _Meifu_ , the Judgement Bureau, and the R&D Division, Watari found himself realizing the very real possibility of picking up _other_ fields of Science to add to his Mechanical Engineering knowledge.

After he’d entered the R&D Division officially, the very first thing he dabbled in was _Alchemy_. Back in the world of the living, Alchemy had been pretty much regarded as _hokey_ science; a primitive and very much ineffective version of Chemistry.   Nobody ever succeeded in turning lead into gold.  He’d wanted to see if being in the land of the dead changed anything. If the laws of Science were any different. It had been meant to be a trial. When the procedure he chose to attempt (turning lead to gold, naturally) worked though, well, Watari was _smitten._

The idea that something considered to be achievable only by _magic_ in the living world was possible here was fascinating. Watari refused to believe the land of the dead was _magical_ , especially when it was so bureaucratic, so scientific in its explanations for some things like _why_ _Shinigami_ were nigh immortal.  He decided, after that very first Alchemic success, that he wanted to know the laws of this world, wanted to understand them scientifically. What made Alchemy possible _here_? He already assumed that talking chickens were just part of a race that had never been found out before in the land of the living, for example.

Needless to say, the R&D Division suffered for his newfound love for Alchemy. It didn’t help that they had no real defence against his experiments. After all, a _Shinigami_ ’s cell regeneration rate could outlast almost any kind of damage and it wasn’t as if he was trying to form a miniature star in his laboratory – that wasn’t even Alchemy!

If it didn’t kill them, he could fix them!

 

* * *

_September 1987_

It was no surprise that months later, he found himself in the Summons Division, sitting in for an interview of sorts.

Watari busied himself with grooming 003 on his lap as the Section Chief looked over his file. There wasn’t much in it, probably, and he, also _probably_ , had to thank his superiors back at the R&D Division for that. The R&D Chief probably went out of his way to exclude his penchant for turning most of the staff into various animals at least once a week. It wasn’t exactly his fault that he couldn’t get the formula for sex-change potions correct.

Finally, the Section Chief- his name was…. Konoe? Watari would have to check later- put his file down. “We’ve just lost two of our Kinki Sector Shinigami so I _suppose_ any replacement would do. The R &D Chief commended your abilities and mentioned that you had potential for _onmyodo.”_

He almost snorted at that. ‘Potential for onmyodo’. Watari was under the impression that every single _Shinigami_ had that at least. But, he didn’t say anything. Can’t exactly argue when you were in a job interview of sorts and your future funding was on the line. He’d been assured that when he transferred to this Division, he would still have access to some sort of funding for his research.

They just needed to be _free_ from his experiments.

“It’s not like being turned into a cute little owl is bad, huh, is it 003?” He murmured to 003- who _also_ happened to be an owl- as he tickled her chin. Last week, he’d successfully infiltrated the R &D Division’s coffee supply and turned the R&D Chief into an owl. It lasted until…. yesterday, and then, as soon as he was done flapping around and hooting angrily at Watari, he’d filled out the transfer forms and shooed him to the Summons Division.

“…What?” Konoe eyed him warily.

Watari blinked innocently at him and showed off 003 and her pretty fur. “I said isn’t 003 cute? I use salad oil to keep her feathers nice, soft, and cute!”

“Uh-“ the Section Chief took one look at the owl and nodded slowly. “…Yes.”

003 hooted in thanks. “Good, 003, always say thank you to people who compliment you!” Watari leaned forward then. “So, when do I get to start? I have to set up my lab and that’s probably going to take a while…”

“I guess you can start as soon as possible. Your file says you’ll need a lab…  you can take the room right next to the staff lounge. ”

“Great!” Watari exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. The sooner he got set up, the sooner he could start running experiments again!

“Before that- this… Your file says you have a special ability. This is-“

Watari had been at the door, 003 flapping after him, by the time the Section Chief had gotten to ask his question. The Section Chief had picked up his file again and was staring at the section for “Special Abilities”.

It always surprised people the first time they heard about it. Not so much after that though, he wondered why?

“I have the ability to breathe life into machines and drawings- stuff like that,” and then he let 003 perch on his hand. “003, for example, is one of my creations. Isn’t she sweet?”

The Section Chief looked surprised- just as expected.

Watari laughed. Well, he was sort of surprised too, especially when he found out. It was fun sending drawings to annoy the R&D Chief for more funding.

“Yup! So if you need a sentient stapler, I guess I’m your man! …. Or anything to do stuff for you automatically.”

“Er… I’ll pass. It’s- uh. Welcome to the Summons Division, Watari.”

Watari made a playful salute then, one that 003 mirrored beside him.

“Please take care of us!”

 

* * *

 

**Footnotes: **

**  
**

[1] It’s not word-per-word at parts, but the dialogue is from **_Yami no Matsuei vol 12, ch. 58_** _(translation by: L & _Miyuchan_)_

[2] Taken from [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akasha). It was a pretty word-per-word definition, I thought I’d reference it somehow.

[3] [Brain-Computer Interface](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interface) \- I thought it'd be neat if Watari could have gotten a wind of this somehow. It says in the Wikipedia page that research on it began in the 1970s and so, I thought, that possible!

[4] This one is word-per-word the Akasha’s welcoming words to Watari from **Yami no Matsuei vol 12, ch. 57** _(translation by: L & _Miyuchan_)_

[5] [Hanami Viewing Schedules?](http://japan-guide.com/blog/sakura12/) \- Somebody at the yuletide chat provided me with this link. I sort of assumed that Watari would have been in the Osaka region when he died. According to Wiki (and that schedule of Hanami in Japan), Hanami occurs somewhere around March and April? Anyway, in this fic I set Watari's death to be around May, so it's way past. Also, if I remember right, cherry blossoms are supposed to bloom all year round in Meifu, despite there actually being weather changes all year round there.

[6] [Anterograde Amnesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterograde_amnesia) \- The loss of the ability to create new memories! I'm not sure if I used this right, but hey... uh. I hope it does work. It was better than the first thing that popped into my mind (Retrograde Amnesia)...


End file.
